UConn men’s notebook: Jalen Adams lands on bench

Published 10:43 pm, Thursday, February 11, 2016

Jalen Adams made his eight start of the season on Thursday and seventh in UConn’s last eight games. He had a decent first half, scoring on a couple of drives, making a pair of free throws and grabbing three rebounds.

He began the second half on the bench in lieu of Rodney Purvis — a bit surprising, even though Purvis had a game-high 10 points at halftime. But as the minutes went on and Adams remained on the bench, it became apparent that the 6-foot-3 freshman point guard was either injured, sick, or being disciplined.

Turns out, it was the latter. Adams finally entered the game with 2 minutes, 43 seconds left and what was once a 12-point UConn lead now down to just two.

Asked if there was a reason why Adams sat out the first 17-plus minutes of the latter half, coach Kevin Ollie was vague.

“Yeah, there was a reason,” he said. “It was a team reason.”

Adams wound up missing a lane runner after Temple had taken a 59-58 lead, then turned the ball over on an ill-advised, behind-the-back pass to Sterling Gibbs in the waning seconds.

Crowded house

UConn missed out on a chance to pull into a tie for first place in the AAC in the loss column. Now, Temple is tied with SMU atop the league standings at 9-3. The Huskies fell to 7-4, a half-game behind 8-4 Cincinnati and Tulsa and half-game ahead of 7-5 Houston.

Temple of doom

Temple has now swept its season series with UConn the past two years. The Owls beat the Huskies 55-53 in Hartford on Jan. 5 on Josh Brown’s game-winner in the final seconds.